Meet Bob and Vicky

Bob and Vicky made their first trip to Shell, Ecuador in the winter of 2005. Bob worked as relief anestheisologist in Hospital Vozandes del Oriente and Vicky made contacts with the local missionary women while exploring other mission efforts in Shell. Each year they identify a special need in the town of Shell and initiate a fundraising project to fulfill the need(s).

In 2006 Vicky met Patti Sue Arnold, a missionary who takes in "the unwanted children of the rain forest." The home is called La Casa de Fe, "The House of Faith." When Vicky first met Patti, she had nine children. Today Patti is caring for 78 children. They may be orphans or abandoned or abused or just "throwawys." Patti takes them all in. Over the years Bob and Vicky have supported her in many ways; purchasing a twelve passenger van as a safe means of transportation of the children (2008), purhasing a construction truck to facilitate the ongoing construction of CDF (2010), and paying the hospital bill at Hospital Vozandes del Oriente (2009). In 2009, Bob and Vicky led their first short term mission team to Casa de Fe. The team worked on the construction of the sewer system for the planned children's village.

In 2011 Bob and Vicky recruited their first short term mission team from Concordia College, Moorhead, MN. Their short term goal was to encourage college student participation in global mission while their long term goal was to encourage the students to make mission a part of their professional life. Over the years the teams have helped build a school for Patti's children and a large storage shed which will also be used as a workshop and a vocational training site for the children. Bob and Vicky will lead their fiifth short term mission team to CDF in Feb 2014.

In 2007 our special project was a school named Emaus. Education in Ecuador is supposed to be free but it is not. A local couple from Shell started a free school for the poor children in a church. We raised sufficient funds to purchase a refrigerator for fresh fruits and vegetables, an overhead projector, a copier and had 40 student desks & chairs made by a local carpenter as well as six teachers desks. The school uses the copier to make workbooks for the children since the school cannot afford textbooks. On our short-term mission trip in 2009 we made approximately 800 textbooks for the chidren of Emaus. Each year we send a team of students to the school to continue the book making project.

This year Bob will also make a trip to San Lorenzo, Ecuador which is located in the far northwest corner of Ecuador close to the coast. He will provide anesthesia coverage for the San Lorenzo Clinic. Several Concordia students have visited San Lorenzo in the summer; some with planning help from Bob and others after participating in a short term mission trip.